Yet in what is perhaps the final blow to Save Coney Island, the non-profit group that had been pushing for landmark designations, a spokeswoman for the commission on Thursday said the group was unlikely to reverse its decision.

“Unless the authors of the the letter present us with new information or compelling evidence of the architectural or historic significance of these buildings, it is unlikely we would reconsider our decision,” the spokeswoman said.

The four structures are set to be torn down by Thor Equities by Memorial Day 2011 as part of the group’s redevelopment plan for the area, which would include parks, restaurants, new hotels and roughly 5,000 thousands of units of new housing. Thor’s real estate speculation has been criticized over the past few years, as Coney Island’s famed Astroland amusement park fell into a state of disrepair. Giving the buildings landmark status would have placed restrictions on Thor’s redesign plans for any modifications to those specific structures.

In the letter, the historians, who include Pulitzer Prize winners Mike Wallace and Edwin Burrows, urged the commission to “to support a Coney Island landmark district that would include these and other historic buildings along the Surf Avenue corridor.”

Save Coney Island, which originally asked the historians to write the letter, said it was sent via email on Tuesday. Yet the commission, which is considering two other Coney Island buildings for landmark status, said it only received the letter this afternoon. The historians’ plea for reconsideration does not appear to include the type of information that the committee would need to reverse its decision.

As the New York Post explains, the historians are lobbying for landmark status for the 1880s Grashorn Building, believed to be the area’s oldest surviving edifice, and the Henderson Music Hall Building (built in 1899), where Harpo Marx first performed in public with his brothers Gummo and Groucho. The two other buildings are the 1903 Shore Hotel, the area’s last small hotel and the Bank of Coney Island building, erected in 1923.

Coney Island’s new amusement facility, renamed Luna Park, opened to warm reviews this Memorial Day. The park’s opening followed a feud between the city and Thor over the firm’s redesign plans. The two sides family came to an agreement last year after Thor agreed to sell the city much of the area’s best real estate along the boardwalk for the refurbishment of the amusement park.

In initially rejecting landmark status for the buildings in question, the commission said in a letter earlier this month that the area did not qualify as a historic district, nor did the individual properties meet the architectural criteria, among other things, needed to receive landmark status.

Correction: An earlier version of this article featured a photo of the former Shore Movie Theater in Coney Island instead of the Shore Hotel.